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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2009 > August > 26 > Entry
Mike DeWine on Ted Kennedy: “A legislator’s legislator”
Former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, the Cedarville Republican, on Wednesday, Aug. 26, recalled the 12 years he served in the Senate with Democrat Ted Kennedy, who died of brain cancer late Tuesday.
“He was the last guy you’d want on the other side and the first guy you’d want on your side,” said DeWine, who’s running for Ohio attorney general next year. “Whether you agreed with him or not - and many times I didn’t - he was a legislator’s legislator.”
DeWine’s remembrances of Kennedy trace back further than their service in the Senate together. In 1993, DeWine was Ohio lieutenant governor when his daughter Becky died.
The two-page letter of condolence that he and his wife Fran received from Kennedy “was one of the first letters we got,” DeWine recalled. DeWine earlier had served eight years in the U.S. House, but didn’t know Kennedy well, he said.
It was typical of Kennedy, DeWine said. In the Senate, Kennedy always was “the first guy to be there to help you” when personal tragedy struck.
“When a colleague of mine’s nephew had cancer, the colleague told me Kennedy did everything he could to find the right doctor. He was on the phone calling doctors all over the country,” DeWine said.
When another senator, Republican Gordon Smith of Oregon, lost a son to suicide, Kennedy also reached out, said DeWine.
“I had no idea that Ted had done anything until a year later when Gordon got up on the Senate floor and mentioned that Ted had established a fund in memory of Gordon’s son,” said DeWine.
DeWine said he clashed on the Senate floor with Kennedy on issues such as abortion - DeWine was a strong opponent and Kennedy supported abortion rights.
“We would vehemently disagree about that…There were many issues where I looked at Ted as being kind of a doctrinaire liberal,” said DeWine.
Kennedy, however, also was interested in passing legislation and sought out allies where he could fine them, even conservative Republicans like DeWine.
DeWine recalled Kennedy’s staff approaching his staff about working with Kennedy on legislation regulating the manufacturing, marketing and sale of tobacco. Kennedy knew of DeWine’s interest in protecting children, DeWine said.
DeWine joined the effort but the legislation didn’t pass before DeWine left the Senate after losing to Democrat Sherrod Brown in 2006. However, the legislation eventually did pass and President Barack Obama signed it this year.
That was the way Kennedy worked, said DeWine. He didn’t give up but kept working and often succeeded, said DeWine.
“He was always interested in passing legislation,” said DeWine. “And if you could find common ground, what you knew is that he would bring the rest of the Democrats (along).
Kennedy’s word was good, said DeWine.
“There wasn’t any beating around the bush with him,” said DeWine, “….In a sense, you respect an adversary who was upfront.”
Kennedy made his mark on the Senate, said DeWine.
“If your criteria (includes) putting aside whether you agreed (with him), …there’s no one who had more influence on legislation in the last 50 years than Kennedy,” DeWine said.
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